Managing fishery impacts on deep-water coral ecosystems of the USA: emerging best practices

The USA has rich and varied deep-water coral ecosystems. Disturbances from bottom trawls have been well documented in certain habitats and are considered the major threat to deep-water corals in most US regions where such fishing is allowed. Other bottom-set fishing gears (e.g. gillnets and longlines) can also impact these communities. The USA has taken far-reaching action to address these threats to deep-water habitats. Since 2006, the USA has protected nearly 1.8 million km² of vulnerable benthic habitats from bottom trawling, mostly in the Pacific. Additional major habitat conservation efforts are underway in the US Atlantic. In these efforts, a number of approaches are emerging as best-practices to conserve deep-water corals and other vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep sea: (1) protecting particularly vulnerable areas, especially seamounts and major identified deep-water coral habitats, from impacts by all bottom-contact gear; (2) defining the current ‘footprint’ of bottom-trawl and dredge fisheries in partnership with the fishing community, and preventing expansion of these fisheries into deeper waters until they can be surveyed to identify potentially vulnerable habitats; and (3) using fisheries observers and vessel monitoring systems to provide key information that can inform adaptive management and enforcement. In 2006, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the nation’s primary fishing law, was amended to explicitly allow protection of deep-sea corals in their own right. These approaches are being incorporated into a national strategic plan to comprehensively study and conserve deep-water coral and sponge ecosystems, and may help inform ongoing international conservation efforts.